HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: With Sandy in the past, Jersey readies for playoffs

Idle for the last 14 days thanks to Hurricane Sandy’s devastation on Oct. 29-30. it’s time for the Colonial Valley Conference football fraternity to strap on the helmets and pads and resume their chase of NJSIAA playoff berths.

Three of the CVC teams with playoff berths already locked up - West Windsor-Plainsboro South, Allentown and Notre Dame - return to action at home tonight, taking on probably their most traditional rivals to get Week 9 of the West Jersey Football League started.

All three kickoff at 7 p.m. as WW-P South welcomes crosstown rival WW-P North, Notre Dame welcomes Trenton to Msgr. Walter Nolan Stadium, and Hightstown makes the short trek down Route 526 for a meeting with its closest CVC neighbor Allentown.

That game pits two former Notre Dame High quarterbacks - Allentown’s Jay Graber and the Rams’ Pete Brescia - facing each other for the first time in a WJFL game.

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In addition to plenty of exciting football. they will be hosting a special benefit at Pirates’ field in Princeton Junction where Todd Smith’s 7-1 Pirates can lock up a second straight WJFL Colonial Division crown with a win over the 0-8 WW-P North Knights.

The athletic department of the West Windsor schools is joining with the Red Cross clubs of both North and South to collect donations at the 11th annual North/South game .

All admissions will be a donation to the Red Cross to aid the many fellow New Jersey tri-state residents affected by Hurricane Sandy. So all fans are asked to come to exciting game and give as much as possible to show how much the WWP school communities are . . . Jersey Strong!!!

The Pirates, who lead the rivalry 6-4 and have won three of the last four and five of seven under Smith, probably won’t secure a No. 1 seed in the C.J. IV playoffs because they trail unbeaten Sayreville by 21 power points. But a loss in what would be one of the CVC’s biggest football rivalries, could cost them a possible home playoff game next weekend.

Notre Dame, which looked like it might not make the playoffs three weeks ago, made a huge rebound knocking off Allentown when the Redbirds were 7-0 at the time. That pushed the 5-2 Irish up to seventh in the power points race, 18 out of possibly getting a home game next Friday.

Chappy Moore’s boys would pick up big points if they beat a Group 5 Trenton team that’s 2-6.

Wins over the Tornadoes have been memorable uin Moore’s career at ND. His first win as the Irish coach came in 1976 when Ken Alford’s 35-yard field goal beat Trenton, 17-15, to end an 0-18 streak the Irish were on until Chappy arrived.

In 1999 when he returned to the ND head job after recovering from a heart attack Chappy’s first win wa again over Trenton, 13-0. He hasn’t lost to the Tornadoes since.

The last time a Moore-coached ND squad fell to Trenton was when the 1990 Tornadoes romped, 48-0, on the way to a 9-0-0 perfect regular-season and school-best 10-1-0 record.

The Hightstown/Allentown rivalry hasn’t been a continuous one. They did not play for six years, and didn’t face each other until the consolation round of the 2010 NJSIAA playofs when Hightstown won, 32-26, but needed overtime to do it.